“In the face of ongoing job cuts, PSA membership remains stable and now¬†stands at 58,427, slightly up on last year. The Executive Board has identified¬†recruitment as a top priority that must be a feature of all the union‚Äôs¬†activities in order to maintain and increase our influence.

A number of new recruitment strategies are being tested, including prize¬†draws for members who recruit new members.

The PSA Benefits team, a company which specialises in union recruitment, has recruited 441 new members over the past year.”

With over $9M spent on PSA staff wages per annum why have they set up a recruitment team and more importantly a company?

Why aren’t the members told who holds the shares and why are they investing in a company who sole job is recruitment and yet they have X hundred of staff at the PSA.¬† Read more »

Some of Christchurch’s biggest employers are calling for more unskilled immigrants to be allowed into New Zealand to fill job vacancies.

While the city calls for tradesmen, engineers and management-level workers as the rebuild gets into full swing, some businesses say there is a similar need for those willing to do low-paid, unskilled work.

Trish Paterson, recruitment manager for Christchurch-based employment agency Ryan Recruitment, said many local companies were struggling to fill positions that required no qualifications or skills that can be learned on the job.

“It’s not so much that [jobs] are not available, but in a lot of cases they are paying minimum wage and there are other employers paying more, even if it is only 50c per hour, people will move jobs for that,” she said.

The company was even struggling to find people to stand with Stop/Go signs to manage traffic at road works.

Employers needed to adjust their expectations, she said.

“The old attitude ‘if they want the job they have to fit in with us’ is now unrealistic.

“Quite often it is about thinking outside the square . . . taking a more lateral approach and sourcing people that can be trained to do the job, perhaps people they would not have considered in the past.”

Most importantly, Paterson believed, Christchurch needed to bring in more immigrants.

Right so it appears that there are no unemployed at all left in Christchurch…I wonder what the stats say?¬† Read more »